Marta González Catalán, PhD
NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST
Dr. González Catalán is an Instructor at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School. She is also a bilingual clinical neuropsychologist, conducting evaluations with diverse adult patients at the MGH Multicultural Assessment and Research Center (MARC). She received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Palo Alto University. She then completed her psychology residency at Tewksbury Hospital and her postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her graduate research looked at the interaction of psychiatric and medical comorbidities in individuals with neurocognitive disorders. Her clinical and research interests focus on aging, cultural neuropsychology, and neurodegenerative diseases. She joined the Lab in December 2022 and collaborates on ongoing MAPP projects with aging Latino populations. In her free time, she enjoys traveling to her home country of Spain, trying new restaurants, reading mystery novels, and playing table tennis.
Email: [email protected]
Edmarie Guzmán-Vélez, PhD
NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST
Dr. Guzmán-Vélez is Assistant Professor at MGH and Harvard Medical School. She joined MAPP as a postdoctoral fellow in September 2016 after completing her doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa and internship in neuropsychology at the Boston VA. Her graduate research focused on examining the dissociation between declarative memory and emotions in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). During her postdoctoral fellowship, she studied cognitive tests that are sensitive to the earliest brain changes in AD, as well as changes in functional connections in preclinical AD and their relationship to cognition and pathology burden. Her current research focuses on examining non-pharmacological and lifestyle factors that can reduce the risk for dementia. Dr. Guzmán-Vélez was awarded a NIA K23 grant (2019-2024) to investigate whether greater aerobic fitness may modify the course of AD and the underlying mechanisms (e.g. neuroinflammation). She is an advocate for increasing diversity, inclusion and equity in STEM. She enjoys cooking, reading fiction, spending time with friends and family, traveling, dancing, and exercising.
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Email: [email protected]
X/Twitter: @EdmarieGV
Liliana Ramírez-Gómez, MD
NEUROLOGIST
Dr. Ramirez Gomez has been faculty at the Multicultural Alzheimer Prevention Program (MAPP)since its foundation in 2018 and is a member of the CADLAS (US Consortium of Aging, Dementia, and Latino Studies). Dr. Ramirez Gomez is the Clinical Director of the Memory Disorders Division at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. At MGH, Dr. Ramirez Gomez created a comprehensive neurology clinic focused on providing culturally sensitive care for Spanish-speaking patients. In 2023, Dr. Ramirez Gomez was the first woman from Latin America to receive the prestigious Norman Geschwind Award in Behavioral Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology.
Her research goals are to identify preclinical biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and related dementias (AD/ADRD) and find ways to assist better underserved Spanish language populations with dementia, including patients and their caregivers. She received a minority diversity supplement from the National Institute on Aging to study whether changes in the ability to remember odors can serve as a novel specific biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease and understand the relationship between AD neuropathological changes and the onset of changes in olfactory function.
Dr. Ramirez Gomez also works on developing interventions to help improve emotional well-being and caregiver skills in Spanish-speaking family dementia caregivers. Dr. Ramirez Gomez completed a study of an adaptation of mentalizing imagery therapy intervention for Spanish-speaking caregivers. She found that it was feasible and acceptable, and there was a reduction in depression symptoms, perceptions of caregiver burden, and improved well-being. With the current support of the Alzheimer’s Association and the MADRC, she is working on developing virtual and mobile therapies for caregivers in English and Spanish.
She enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking and relaxing in nature.
Email:[email protected]
X/Twitter: @LRamirezGomezMD
Daniel Saldana, PhD
NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST
Dr. Daniel Saldana is a psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He joined MGH in October 2023 as a bilingual (English and Spanish) clinical neuropsychologist and serves as associate director of the Multicultural Assessment & Research Center (MARC). Dr. Saldana received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from City University of New York (CUNY), Queens College. He completed his internship and post-doctoral chief fellowship in lifespan cultural neuropsychology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Semel Institute, Hispanic Neuropsychiatric Center of Excellence (HNCE). Dr. Saldana’s graduate research investigated the effects of deep diaphragmatic breathing training on cognitive functioning in healthy young adults. More broadly, Dr. Saldana is interested in cognitive training and has published chapters on the game of chess, elucidating the cognitive differences between experts and novices, and cognitive training across the lifespan. His clinical interests are focused on investigating differences between monolingual and bilingual/multicultural neuropsychological assessment. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, playing volleyball, practicing chess, and writing fiction.
Email: [email protected]
Clara Vila Castelar, PhD
NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST
Dr. Vila-Castelar is a neuropsychologist at the Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program (MAPP), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. She completed her doctoral training in clinical psychology at Queens College, The Graduate Center (City University of New York), and her internship and postdoctoral fellowship in multicultural neuropsychology at MGH/Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on understanding how individual and sociocultural factors, such as sex, gender, race/ethnicity, language or culture, impact risk and resilience to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cognitive decline. She was awarded an NIA K99/R00 grant in 2022 to examine the impact of sex hormones and reproductive history on the progression of autosomal dominant AD. Her clinical interests and expertise focus on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate neuropsychological services to diverse adult individuals with medical, neurological, psychiatric, and developmental conditions, including monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speakers, and non-English/Spanish-speaking adult patients, at the MGH Multicultural Assessment and Research Center (MARC). She also is involved in the training and supervision of clinical psychology interns and neuropsychology fellows.
Email: [email protected]
X/Twitter: @ClaraVilaPhD
